Evidence of Language Influencing Thought

The 19th century Sapir-Whorf
hypothesis, that ideas inherent in human languages might influence
or limit human
thought, has spawned a wide range of claims, some little more than urban
legend; like the claim that the Inuit have hundreds of words
for snow (they don't, Inuit has a half-dozen words for snow, that's
fewer than English, and there's no evidence they think differently about
snow than we do). In the 1960s researchers began to formulate tests of
the hypothesis and learned language was more universal than relative,
leading them to largely abandon the hypothesis. In recent years, though,
advances in cognitive science have made it possible to spot experimental
differences that might have been missed before. So is there any real
evidence now that language influences thought? A new Edge
article by Lera Boroditsky say yes. Boroditsky researches cognitive
science and symbolic systems - thought and language. She claims to have
found solid evidence in Pormpuraaw, an Aboriginal community in
Australia:

the Kuuk Thaayorre, like many other Aboriginal groups, use
cardinal-direction terms — north, south, east, and west — to define
space. This is done at all scales, which means you have to say things
like "There's an ant on your southeast leg" or "Move the cup to the
north northwest a little bit." ... The result is a profound difference
in navigational ability and spatial knowledge between speakers of
languages that rely primarily on absolute reference frames (like Kuuk
Thaayorre) and languages that rely on relative reference frames (like
English).

She goes on to describe how the researchers tested whether these
differences were actually caused by the language or some other aspect of
the culture. While these sorts of
cognitive differences may not be as significant as early proponents of
the "language defines thought" concept imagined, Lera Boroditsky makes
the case that they are both real and testable. This is certainly
something to think about when designing machines that will think
and use language.